T-3 running trials, late fall of 1920, location unknown. Like her sister AA-2 (T-2) she does not yet have the bridge fairwater installed and she was also completed without the trainable torpedo tubes in the superstructure. This was one of the few times that she made a full power run, as evidenced by the impressive bow wave. Her engines ended up being nearly total failures, and runs like this were rare. The sea is nearly a glass calm, and this helped the situation. A heavier sea would have inundated the bridge as these boats were known to trim down by the head at high speeds on the surface.
Photo provided by MMCM(SS) Rick Larson, USN (Ret.)
T-3 at the Bethlehem Quincy Fore River yard, date unknown but is likely shortly before or after her commissioning on December 7, 1920. By the date of this photo, T-3 has received a temporary pipe frame and canvas bridge structure. This would be replaced later with a permanent metal chariot bridge. On the forward deck above the folded bow planes is a passive listening sonar array called the Y-tube. It consisted of three hydrophones on a triangular frame. The hydrophones were covered by tapered flexible rubber covers called "rats", giving them a distinctive shape. The Y-tube array is protected by a pipe frame guard erected over and around it.
On the right in the photo is the bow of a 20 series S-boat, along with the tip of the bow of one of the other T-class fleet boats, likely T-2. Note that the bow planes on the S-boat have a completely different folding and retraction system, retracting into the superstructure as opposed to folding up alongside it like on the T-3.
U.S. Navy photo
T-3's conning tower fairwater, showing details. This was the summer of 1922 and the location is likely the Norfolk Navy Yard. T-3 is actually moored next to T-1, with the rest of this photo shown on the T-1 page. By this time T-3 has a permanent metal chariot bridge fairwater. If you compare the two, you will see some detail differences in how the two fairwaters were arranged. Notably, T-3 is lacking the spray/water deflector that is mounted on T-1.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman
After slightly less than two years in commission, T-3 was decommissioned and placed in reserve in Philadelphia. In October, 1925 she was modified in a scheme to test a new MAN engine design, a 10 cylinder, four cycle, 2,350 horsepower giant. Her four failed NELSECO engines were removed and two of these new engines were installed in their place. She is shown here in the fall of 1925 in Philadelphia after being recommissioned and placed back in limited service to tests these engines. After a series of tests over the next 18 months showed that the engine performance was lackluster at best, she was again decommissioned and relegated back to the reserve fleet in Philadelphia. She lingered rusting away at the yard there until 1930 when she was finally scrapped.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman
T-3 on December 23, 1925 In Philadelphia with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Douglas Robinson with wife Helen and three of their daughters aboard inspecting the submarine. Daughter Alida is looking at the camera. Daughters Helen and Elizabeth are behind Alida. Note the Christmas Tree laying on the deck waiting to be put up. The family is standing around the rectangular deck hatch that covers the space above the torpedo loading hatch. The white canvas structure in the background covers the access hatch to the torpedo room. It is temporary in nature and is used to keep rain and snow out of the torpedo room.
Library of Congress photo.
A close up of the photo above, showing Assistant Secretary Robinson and his family on the forward deck of the USS T-3 (SF-3) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, December 23, 1925.
Library of Congress photo.
Interior Photos, December 1925
Most likely corresponding with Asst. Secretary Robinson's visit, a thorough series of interior photos was taken of T-3 in December, 1925. These 27 photos will give a very good representation of the interior arrangement of this unusual boat. They are arranged forward to aft on the page linked below.
